Nevada County picayune., 1887-12-07
WASHINCTONTOPICS.
Weekly Budget of News From the
 National Capital.
From our Specinl Correspondent l

The Democratic CohSfesSiohal Caucus. which will assemble al the Capitol the last of this week, men who are ambitious to serve their country as subordinates of ihe House of Representatives. It is the opinion of many that the Hon. Sunset" Cox is to be both temporary and permanent char. man of the Democratic Cancns.-- Since l last wrote, the situation has changed somewhat all the candidates for Doorkeeper having withdrawn except two, Donaldson and Hunt, a contestant for the Clerkship having appeared in the person of w. G. Raines, of Koch ester, N. Y., and it is said that he is supported by powerful infiuen ces. On the other hand, the ri ends of the present Clerk, Gen. Jno. B. Clark, of Missouri, confi- dently clai,i his reelection.
 Greater interest is felt in politi- cal circles in Washington as to wh at may transpire at the other end of the Capitol next Monday, as the seats of at least two of the twenty six Senators to be sworn in on that day, are to be cOntested-one each from California and West Nir- ginia, to say nothing of a "protest' from Indiana-the situation being complicated by the fact that of the fifty Senators holding over, twen- ty-tive are Democrats and twenty five are Republicans--R -Riddleberger included. Thus the Senator from Virginia holds the balance ofpOw- CT. I am informed that it is the policy of the Democrats to fore stall the contests by urging the seating of all the new Senators at once in body, and in case the Republicans refuse assent to the proposition, to produce legislat- i've deadlock. The admission Of the Senators from California and West Virginia involvs the right ol the State legislature to choose q United States Senator at an extra session; thus the decision in these cases will be useful as a precedent ,o settle future contests of this character.
 There is every indication that the Senate will wage vigorous war against the President thlS win
 ter--the proyocation being MT
 Cleveland's appointment of the American Fisheries Commission
 CTS, who rank automatically as special enyoys, without the lad
 wee and consent of the Senate. ."-- The question of prerogative thus raised is quite an old one, dating back early in the history of the Government. and it affords pOliti cal demagogues a ready subject ot iutprmlnnblc controversy.
 ! The International Fisheries Com mission is now in secret session al the State Department, and conse' quently the deliberations of this digniiied body are not known to the public.
 The argument in the Standard Oil discrimination cases, much to the surprise of nearly every body, las been postponed by the Inter state Commission tll January 10th. From all your correspondent can loarn of the evidence, it seems ] that q rather strong case has been made out against the Jumbo ot monopolies, if Jay G"ulds tele- graph lines be excepted.
 Chief Justice Waite, of the Su- preme Court, celebrated his seven ty-first birthday this week, but he does not look a day over sixty years One year ago the venera- ble iurist was eligible to retire ment, and he could then have re- signed his commission and deman- ded salary of Sl0,0OO per aunum the remainder of his life. The same may be said of Associate Justices Field, Miller, and Bradley. Per haps in no other country of the world can be witnessed four septu. agenarians vigorously working ev- cry day, when they could receive precisely the same compensation for doing nothing whatever. Ac- cording to the annual report Ofthe First Assistant Postmaster Gene ral, the number of postotiices in the United States, on June 30, lS- S7. was D, 5,157; it further shows the still more gratify ing fact that over 25, ,000 Democrats have been ap- pointed postmasters during the past two years
 It is surprising to think of the vast amount ofmOney lost in trans mission through the mails. The report of the dead letter office shows that the sum of S29,6S7 was found in letters, of which amount s20 ,639 was returned to the send CTS, There was deposited in the Treasury $6,G12, taken from dead letters that could not be restored to the owners, and also S2,92l, the proceeds of auction sales of fpacka gcs of merchandise, which cOuld not be restored.